Okay, so as Ms. S explained in her post, Versace did turn out to be pretty social and confidence after Day 1 at puppy school, eradicating our worries that we may have picked up a shy dog.

Apparently, shyness is regarded as a negative trait among Dobermann breeders as it may lead to anxiety and potential fear-biting/aggressiveness.   It is better to have a confident, friendly and social dog, and needless to say, early socialization and interaction with other humans and dogs (not just with the owners) plays a significant role in the early ages.

Versace loved going to puppy school once he gained the confidence and met his first flame Angel: it was so cute to watch a black baby Dobe play with a white baby lab!!!

He grew by the day, gaining more weight and height, although it would take a many months for his body to match the size of his paws.

Our next challenge in his early developmental stage was dealing with his stamina, speed, and strength as he grew bigger and more confident.  Even while he was still a tiny pup, there was no doubt that the Dobe genes in him were starting to wake up.

His energy levels were simply unbelievable: once he was allowed to go out and exercise, he could literally go on for hours.  Ms. S had to walk him and exercise him for a couple of hours every day, yet he would show few signs of exhaustion: he was always ready for another trip to the park!  Luckily, we soon discovered that the “ball” (i.e., man’s greatest invention for dog owners) could save us from running around with him.  He took an instant liking to the idea of “throw”, “chase”, “catch”, “retrieve” and repeat the entire process until my arm popped out of my shoulder from throwing saliva-marinated tennis balls a hundred times.  Chasing the ball immediately became his favorite pastime, and it was the only way we could make him feel that he got enough exercise for the day.

On top of that, he was fast: Dobermanns have long legs compared to many other dogs, so when they accelerate and reach full speed, they are impossible to stop (forget about trying to jog with them, you’ll end up in hospital!)  The problem was his clumsiness coupled with speed: he would often crash into objects/people, but of course that would not necessarily stop him from running around.

And last but not least, he was strong: even as a puppy, we realized that if we could not control him while he was tiny, we would be in big trouble down the track.  Dobermanns may look skinny due to their short coat but in actual fact they have a muscle-packed body, and that is no different for pups.  His sheer power was very obvious from the very early days.

All of these attributes indicated that we needed to start training him properly in his early years before he literally bulldozed us.  It was great fun watching him run around and play, but at the same time, we had no remote control with a “pause” button to make him stop when necessary… so we soon enrolled in the local puppy training club.

Based on our knowledge that the Dobermann is one of the smartest breeds in the canine academic community, we had assumed that training would be a breeze: all we needed were a few lessons to get some tips from the pros.  We could not have been more wrong!